Paine, Thomas O. (1921–1992)

Thomas O. Paine was NASA's third Administrator during whose term
of office the first seven Apollo manned missions were flown, including the first two to the Moon's surface.
Paine graduated from Brown University in 1942 with an A.B. degree in engineering
and in 1947 from Stanford University with a Ph.D. in metallurgy. In World
War II he served as a submarine officer in the Pacific. Subsequently, he
held a variety of research and research-management positions before being
appointed Deputy Administrator of NASA in 1968. Upon the retirement of James Webb, Paine was named Acting Administrator
and nominated as Administrator of NASA in March 1969, a position from which
he resigned in September 1970, to return to the General Electric.

In 1985 the White House chose Thomas Paine as chair of a National Commission
on Space to prepare a report on the future of space exploration. Since leaving
NASA 15 years earlier, Paine had been a tireless spokesman for an expansive
view of what should be done in space. The Paine Commission took almost a
year to prepare its report, largely because it solicited public input in
hearings throughout the United States. The Commission report, Pioneering
the Space Frontier, published in May 1986, espoused "a pioneering mission
for 21st-century America – to lead the exploration and development
of the space frontier, advancing science, technology, and enterprise, and
building institutions and systems that make accessible vast new resources
and support human settlements beyond Earth orbit, from the highlands of
the Moon to the plains of Mars." The report also contained a "Declaration
for Space" that included a rationale for exploring and settling the Solar
System and outlined a long-range space program for the United States.